Monday, February 11, 2008

Beauty Can't Be Ordinary

So there I was. driving home from somewhere...I forget where exactly. it was somewhere around five o'clock, just when the sun is going down. I was in a long line of cars driving home after a long workday. traffic was moving at a pace that would make even a granny go mad, and I wasn't in the best of moods. Just then, I turn to look out the passenger side window...and my jaw literally dropped at the sight.

A large fluffy cloud sat lightly on the horizon, the sky behind it was bright pink and large, brilliant sunbeams cascaded out of the cloud, going every different direction. it was positively dazzling. I had to force my eyes to return to the road where they belonged, but it was hard to do. I stared at the cars in front of me, all the heads I could see where facing dutifully toward the road, oblivious to the amazing show happening right outside their window.

I couldn't take it. it actually almost made me mad. I started pointing at the sunset and shouting, "Do you SEE it, people?? DO YOU SEE IT??!" they couldn't hear me, of course. not that I had expected them to. I was just so upset. they were driving it gray cars, on a gray road, through a gray city, living gray little lives. you'd think they'd maybe notice the glorious sunset! maybe they'd wait for it every night, anticipating a splash of color in their gray existence. not that I had a lot of room to talk. though I do go out of my way to appreciate beauty, if I hadn't happened to look out my window, I wouldn't have seen the spectacular sight that God was making right in front of me.

It really bothers me when people don't appreciate beauty. it doesn't really bug me if they don't notice it right away. I mean really...who notices ALL the beauty ALL the time? but if they see it, but don't care about it...that gets on every nerve in my body. like the other night, I was driving a friend home after a fun evening, and I notice the moon. it's just an itty-bitty sliver of a thing, but you can see the whole outline clearly, and the light reflected off the moon shone on the clouds around it, like a little halo. it was absolutely gorgeous. I quickly pointed it out to my friend, who gave it a quick glance and then continued to babble about something or other. I was ticked. on the inside. I hardly ever get visibly upset. I keep everything bottled up inside. I'll probably explode someday. :)

Maybe I shouldn't get that way. but I just can't help it! I'm continually captivated by beauty...and I guess I just want everybody else to be, too. but if sunsets only happened once every ten years, you bet we'd be captivated. if it only snowed once every ten years, you bet even old crusty politicians would be running outside to catch snowflakes on their tongues. if the moon only showed itself every ten years, you bet we'd stay up all night admiring it. on and on it goes. beauty is ordinary. we see it so often, we don't even know it's there. HOW HORRIBLE! that's just so wrong. we don't care about beauty because we have too much of it. "Excuse me, God? could you turn down the beauty a little bit? we're kind of getting swamped down here. great, thanks. You're awesome." but he still creates. he still creates a masterpiece every single night, even though the ones he's creating it for find it ordinary and routine. that's love right there, folks.

Anyways...that's all. I just wanted to shake everybody a little bit and remind them to take a moment today to admire God's beauty and thank him for it. after all...it's there for our enjoyment. :)